Tuesday, March 06, 2007

Addressing swap numbers

If you host a swap and it is 5-for-5, then it is okay if the final quantity comes out to be a multiple of 5. But let's say you have 8 people in the swap total. That means that you will have 40 items to swap out. You do not not want one of yours back. Some swaps do give one of yours back. I don't see why you would unless you are creating a final piece of art.

Person 1 - 2, 3, 4, 5,6
Person 2 - 1, 3, 4, 5, 6
Person 3 - 1,2, 4, 5, 6
Person 4- 1,2,3,5,6
Person 5 - 1,2,3,4,6

At this point, there are no more of 1,5,6
One more of 2, 3,4
Person 6 - 2, 3, 4, 7,8
Person 7 - , 8
person 8 - 7, 8

If I started switching around, then I would be short for person 7 and 8. It never turns out right unless I contribute. I also ask for extras so I can scan them later to the group site. I might be wrong and I don't get all the possibilities correct or someone does not send the right amount.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi. I'm not sure if it affects your final outcome, but at the point where you say you have no more 1s, 5s or 6s, I think you still have a 1 and a 5.

Anonymous said...

Ok, how's this?

1: 2, 8, 4, 6, 3
2: 1, 3, 5, 7, 4
3: 2, 4, 5, 6, 8
4: 7, 8, 1, 2, 6
5: 1, 3, 7, 2, 4
6: 5, 1, 3, 7, 8
7: 8, 1, 2, 5, 6
8: 7, 3, 4, 5, 6

Spike said...

Thanks for addressing this. I had to pull out a sheet of paper to work through it--and it still took 2 tries to get all 40 swapped out!!


MIght be a fun puzzle to hand over to the math teacher for when the kiddies moan about logic puzzles, and how you never EVER need them in REAL life. < /inner teenager>

Spike

Marta said...

Belinda, here is a logical way of doing it which will work for however many swappers you have if it is one more than the number of swaps. In this case, if each swapper sends you 5 cards, it will work for 6 or more swappers.
Give swapper 1 cards to swapper 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6.
Give swapper 2 cards to swapper 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7.
Give swapper 3 cards to swapper 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8.
Give swapper 4 cards to swapper 5, 6, 7, 8, and 1.
See the pattern? You will end up with no one with their own cards and you won't have to do any extras (ever!). Please send me an email at martalmh@yahoo.com if you don't see it.